After 78 years, reunited twins share 'unique opportunity'

May 3, 2014

Updated May 5, 2014 1:17 p.m.

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Twin sisters, Ann Hunt, left, of Aldershot, England and Liz Hamel, of Albany, Oregon, both 78, reunite at the Fullerton Marriott for the first time since 1936, when they were born in Aldershot, England. Their meeting was arranged by Dr. Nancy Segal of California State University, Fullerton, who conducts studies on twins. Segal describes them as the world's longest-separated twins. LEONARD ORTIZ, LEONARD ORTIZ, STAFF PHOTOGRAPHER

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Ann Hunt, 78, left, of Aldershot, England, looks on as her twin sister, Ann Hamel, 78, hugs Hunt's daughter, Samantha Stacey in a reunion at the Fullerton Marriott. Their meeting was arranged by Dr. Nancy Segal of California State University, Fullerton, an expert on twins research. Segal describes them as the world's longest-separated twins. LEONARD ORTIZ, STAFF PHOTOGRAPHER

Dr. Nancy Segal of Cal State Fullerton, uses her cell phone video camera to record the reunion of twin sisters, Ann Hunt, left, of Aldershot, England and Liz Hamel, of Albany, Oregon, both 78, at the Fullerton Marriott. This is their first meeting since hey were they were born in Aldershot, England in 1936. Dr. Segal arranged and financed the meeting through a Cal State University Fullerton grant. LEONARD ORTIZ, STAFF PHOTOGRAPHER

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Ann Hunt, left, Aldershot, England presents her twin sister Liz Hamel, of Albany, Oregon with an alarm clock during their reunion at the Fullerton Marriott. The clock will let her sister know what time it is in England. The sisters, born in Aldershot, England, were reunited for the first time since 1936. LEONARD ORTIZ, STAFF PHOTOGRAPHER

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Twin sisters, Ann Hunt, left, of Aldershot, England, and Liz Hamel, of Albany, Ore., 78, reunite in Fullerton for the first time since 1936. Their meeting was arranged by Dr. Nancy Segal of Cal State Fullerton . LEONARD ORTIZ, LEONARD ORTIZ, STAFF PHOTOGRAPHER

Twin sisters, Ann Hunt, left, of Aldershot, England and Liz Hamel, of Albany, Oregon, both 78, reunite at the Fullerton Marriott for the first time since 1936, when they were born in Aldershot, England. Their meeting was arranged by Dr. Nancy Segal of California State University, Fullerton, who conducts studies on twins. Segal describes them as the world's longest-separated twins. LEONARD ORTIZ, LEONARD ORTIZ, STAFF PHOTOGRAPHER

Reunited twins

Ann Hunt: Lives in Aldershot, England. Daughter Samantha Stacey tracked down her mother's twin. Hunt worked as a manager for a post office cafeteria.

Elizabeth Hamel: Lives in Albany, Ore. She was raised by her biological mother and always knew she had a twin. Her son Quinton Hamel contacted professor Nancy Segal, a Cal State Fullerton twin expert, who arranged the reunion. Hamel was in the Women's Royal Enlisted Navy.

Separated: Since birth

Born: Feb. 28, 1936

Record: They are the world's longest-known separated twins and will get an entry next year in the "Guinness Book of World Records."

Gifts to each other: Hamel gave Hunt an identical necklace to the one that she wears and Hunt gave Hamel an alarm clock, identical to one she has. Hamel will set hers to the time in England and Hunt's will be on Pacific time. That way they both know when to Skype each other.

Itinerary: Reunited Thursday at the Fullerton Marriott; research lab with Segal on Friday and today; sightseeing on Sunday. On Monday, all four fly to Hunt's home in Oregon for a visit.

Case study: "We want to see their similarities and their differences and explain why they're similar and why they're different," Segal said.

Nancy Segal is a Cal State Fullerton psychology professor and director and founder of the school's Twin Studies Center. Segal, who has a fraternal twin sister, has been studying twins for decades.

She is the author of several books including "Entwined Lives: Twins and What They Tell Us About Human Behavior" and "Born Together - Reared Apart: The Landmark Minnesota Twin Study"

Why study twins? Twins reared together and apart can answer questions about the role that genes and environment play in our lives.

Ann Hunt, 78, had just flown into Orange County from England to meet the twin sister she discovered only a year ago.

Since learning about each other, Hunt and Elizabeth “Liz” Hamel have spoken mostly by Skype. But they wanted to look each other in the eyes and finally hug.

Within minutes, Hamel walked in the room. Liz had always known she had a twin.

On Thursday night, the sisters reunited for the first time since birth.

“How lovely to see you in the flesh,” Hamel said, embracing her twin sister for the first time.

“I’ve got a sister,” Hunt said.

The women seemed in awe of being together, saying that the last time they were together they were kicking each other in the womb.

They both have white hair, but style it differently. Hamel is a bit taller. She also claims to be older.

They have a slight resemblance. They’re most likely fraternal twins as opposed to identical, which means they shared their mother’s womb without sharing the identical DNA. A test is pending to be sure.

The twins were separated at birth in England and reconnected at the Fullerton Marriott with a little help from Nancy Segal, a Cal State Fullerton psychology professor and an expert on twins.

“These are rare cases packed with human interest and scientific value,” she said. “This was a very unique opportunity.”

The BBC filmed the reunion and has been documenting their story.

Hunt and Hamel are the world’s longest-known separated twins, beating the prior record by three years, said Segal, who wrote about another set of twins who found each other when they were 75.

Hamel flew in from Albany, Ore., accompanied by her son, Quinton.

Hunt traveled from Aldershot, a town near London, with her daughter, Samantha Stacey.

When Alice Alexandra Patience Lamb, their mother, was 33, she gave birth to the twins in Aldershot. She was working as a domestic servant and made the decision to give up one of her girls.

“She found out she was pregnant and the birth father fled,” Hamel said.

Lamb decided she could only care for one child, so she gave away the child she thought would be more adoptable: Ann.

Liz had curvature of the spine, and in the 1930s, a physical defect would’ve made it more difficult for her to be adopted.

These are things that Hunt didn’t know until Hamel told her.

Hunt lived in an orphanage in London for six months before Gladys and Hector Wilson adopted her. The couple separated when Hunt was 6.

She adored her adopted mother and, like her sister, she grew up an only child. Hunt found out she was adopted when she was 13 or 14 but at that time didn’t know she was a twin.

Alice Lamb married a widower with a son when she was 49. She died of a heart attack at 77.

Alice Lamb raised Hamel until her daughter enlisted in the Women’s Royal Enlisted Navy. She was stationed in Malta, where she met her future husband, a “yank,” on a blind date and later had two sons.

She moved to the United States when she was 28 and still has an English accent.

“I knew that I had a twin, but I never thought I would see her again,” Hamel said.

The adoption records were sealed for a long time. Hamel wondered about her sister and occasionally searched for her online.

Hunt, on the other hand, never knew her birth mother. Until a year ago, she didn’t know where she was born or that she had a twin sister.

“It was such a big shock,” Hunt said.

Stacey, Hunt’s daughter, is the one who tracked down Hamel. She began by trying to find her mother’s biological mother, and stumbled on the fact that Hunt had a twin sister.

Stacey sent Hamel a letter a year ago.

“I got the letter out of the mailbox,” Hamel said, and she took it to her son Quinton who lives next door. Within 10 minutes, the twins were talking on the phone.

One thing they discovered is that they are both widows after having been married to men named Jim.

Hamel’s husband had recently died and she didn’t want to travel.

But she grew interested in learning more about twins after talking to Hunt by phone. She wound up checking out one of Segal’s books at a library.

Quinton Hamel was looking through the book and saw that Segal had written about the twins who had been separated 75 years. He told his mother, “You have that beat.”

Quinton Hamel contacted Segal by email to explain that his mother and her twin sister would now be the longest-separated twins. Segal emailed him within 30 seconds. She arranged the reunion, knowing that studying the twins would allow her to advance her research.

As an adopted teen, Hunt said she used to imagine she might be related to the Royal family.

She avoided looking for her biological mother out of devotion to her adopted mother, Gladys, who told her, “You’re my chosen child.”

Hunt’s mother told her that her biological mother couldn’t look after her.

When her mother died, she felt like she could look for her biological mother. She was delighted to discover she had a twin.

“Mum was just so excited. She rang up everybody,” said Stacey, one of Hunt’s three daughters.

The twins will be in the lab today with Segal, founder of the Twin Studies Center at Cal State Fullerton, who will conduct several tests.

If the twins are fraternal, Segal expects them to be more different than alike. If they’re identical, she expects them to be more alike than different.

After the testing and some sightseeing, the twins and the cousins plan to spend a week at Hamel’s home in Oregon looking at old photos and finding out for themselves how alike or different they are.

“You wonder about someone and what they’re like and suddenly they’re there,” Hamel said. “It’s a shock.”

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